Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - The Dnipropetrovsk Maniacs

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk were insecure children, scared of the world around them. As teenagers in the 2000s, they pushed themselves to move past their fears. But in the process, they unlocked something even more terrifying: an uncontrollable desire to kill anything and anyone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of these killers' crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes graphic discussions of violence, murder, torture, assault, and animal cruelty that some people may find upsetting and offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Natalia Ilchenko woke with a start. She peered out of the window. The sky was still dark and the birds weren't yet making a sound. But something was wrong.

She just couldn't figure out what. Then it hit her. Her home in the Ukrainian city of Nipropetrovsk was quiet, too quiet. As she shoveled into the hallway, she realized why. Her adult daughter, Yacaterina, didn't come home last night. Yacaterina had invited a friend over for dinner last night and offered to walk her home. Although she was independent, she was very responsible. She would have let her mother know if something had happened.

Trying to stay calm, Natalia checked her cell phone for her. any messages. There were none. Getting more worried, she stepped into her shoes and threw a coat on over her pajamas before walking outside. Out in the street, she froze. There were three women huddled around a dark, crumpled shape a few feet away. She must still be asleep, Natalia told herself. This was a nightmare. But as she drew closer, she knew she wasn't dreaming. The figure looked like her daughter, almost, only she wasn't moving, and her head, it didn't look right, and was covered in blood. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're exploring the month-long killing spree of two young killers, known as the Nipro-Petrovsk maniacs.

I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Today, we'll discuss the disturbing case of Ukrainian serial killers, Victor Sayenko, and Igor Saprunec. They murdered 21 people in the span of a single month. We'll explore how Victor and Igor's deadly bond was fueled by their mutual phobias and how their cruelty snowballed in their teenage. age years. We'll also discuss how their most brutal murder went viral. We've got all that and more

coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels. But you don't need to break any laws to find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify. It's the commerce platform that can help you with literally everything. Websides, design, marketing, shipping, and more. So start your business today with the best partner, Shopify, and get that. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash killers. That's Shopify.com slash killers. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to

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standard and get to the standouts with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And now you can try it for free. At ZipRecruiter, at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. That's ziprecruiter. That's ZipRecruiter. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Transport your senses with Soltejanato's limited edition perfume mist collection. At Sephora, spritz on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with

Hefresco Paraiso. Embrace of floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with cheeky bikini. Orcaps your sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora. Everyone's afraid of something, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Our sense of fight or flight can alert us to possible threats, giving us time to act accordingly. But some fears are more helpful than others.

As we grow older, most of us are able to tell the difference between monsters under the bed and actual dangers. However, not everyone learns to process. fear in a healthy way. And if left unchecked, these coping mechanisms can become corrosive. Sometimes even entire swaths of society can be engulfed by intense anxiety and paranoia. This was the case in the 1980s as the decades-long Cold War came to a head. The USSR was in the final stages of collapse. The constant threat of a U.S. attack was slowly subsiding, but life was still tough for Soviet citizens. Food was scarce and resources were limited. In 1986, disaster shook the nation. A catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear

power plant in Ukraine killed dozens. The fallout had far-reaching physical and psychological effects on the country's population. This was the world that Victor Cyanko and Iger Soprunec were thrust into two years later. They were born in 1988, just a month apart, in Nipro, then known as Nipro-Petrovsk, which is one of Ukraine's largest cities. During the Cold War, Nipro Petrovsk was a major center for the USSR's space and defense programs. When Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the city remained an industrial hub. It was a buzzy place to grow up, especially for boys like Victor and Igor, who came from well-to-do families. Victor's father was a lawyer, and Igor's dad was a test pilot for a state-owned aerospace manufacturer.

He even knew and had as his passenger, Leonid Kuchma, an engineer that, would become Ukraine's second president. Although Igor was a young boy, he likely sensed that his father moved in powerful circles. All the same, Igor was fearful of certain things. In particular, he was especially terrified of heights. Igor was probably ashamed of these feelings. He likely wanted to appear confident and strong like his dad, so perhaps in an attempt to mask his anxieties, he turned to idolize Adolf Hitler.

Igor probably declared his love of Hitler to anyone who would listen. He delighted in the fact that he shared his birthday, April 20th, with a genocidal dictator. The USSR had been one of the chief allied powers to defeat the Nazis during World War II, so being openly pro-Hitler was far from socially acceptable in Ukraine, but Igor didn't care. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg.

Igor was drawn to Hitler and had pro-Nazi beliefs. With that, it's likely he also bought into the idea that some people are less human than others. And it's possible that this conviction appealed to him because of his fears. Since World War II, there's been discussion about the supposed link between financial fears and right-wing nationalism. While economic insecurity isn't the only factor at play, research, has shown that anti-immigrant sentiment rises during recessions. Germany was hit hard by the Great Depression,

leaving the population riddled with anger and frustration. The Nazi party took notice and used this pervasive economic anxiety to their advantage. They cast Jews and other marginalized groups as, quote, parasites who were to blame for the nation's troubles. Despite growing up with plenty of privilege, it's possible that Igor was drawn to this message, that his fears and anxieties weren't his own fault, but somebody else's. This sentiment was probably not received well by others.

Perhaps in part due to his pro-Nazi beliefs, it seems Igor had trouble-making friends during his first few years of school. However, he wasn't completely alone. Igor was in the same grade as Victor, and they'd grown up near one another, but they didn't cross paths until elementary school. On the surface, the two boys seemed like polar opposites. Igor was withdrawn, isolated, and prone to angry outbursts. He had a reputation for picking fights with his classmates.

Victor, on the other hand, was a model student. So was his best friend, Alexander Hanja. But when Victor and Alex met Igor, the trio formed an unlikely connection. Despite his outward swagger and his powerful family, Igor's secret turmoil simmered under the surface. He came clean to his new friends about his many worries. That's how he and Victor discovered they shared a fear of heights and were both terrified of being beaten up by bullies. Over the next few years, the three boys grew even closer.

They were thankful to have found one another, but their fears still hadn't subsided. And as time went on, Igor grew increasingly frustrated with feeling so weak. It had to end now. Sometime, likely when they were in their early teens, he announced his grand plan. He'd been looking up how to get over phobias on the internet, and had finally found an answer. According to his research, the best way to overcome anxieties was via exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is founded on the idea that when we fear something, we tend to avoid it. To overcome this uneasiness, we must confront our fear, instead of running away from it, in a safe and controlled environment.

That last part is key. Igor and his buddies didn't have a controlled environment to test out their heart. hypothesis. They didn't have a trained professional to help them either. All they had was the internet and one another. But they did have access to heights. They found a 14-story apartment building, and one afternoon he and Victor went up to the top floor and out onto the balcony. Then they climbed over the railings. The boys held on tightly to the metal bar, their palms slick with sweat. Bracing themselves, they peered at the city sprawled out beneath them. They stood there for hours, looking down at the ground, confronting their fear.

There was nothing standing between them and about a 150-foot drop to their deaths. When they finally came inside, they felt re-energized. Unstoppable. They excitedly told Alex about how well the exposure therapy had worked, and how it could benefit him, too. Alex had a different phobia than his friends. He was extremely afraid of blood. Even the thought of it made him feel faint.

Victor explained that the solution was simple. All Alex had to do was get used to seeing blood, a lot of it, and the boys knew exactly how to make that happen. They knew there was a forested area on the outskirts of town, where stray dogs roamed freely. Nobody would notice if a few went missing. That's how the boys seemingly first discovered a taste for violence. During this time, Igor, Victor, and Alex captured a number of strays.

They tortured and killed the animals, then hung their corpses from trees. What started out as exposure therapy had turned into something truly evil. Any notion of a therapeutic purpose had flown out the window. Now the trio were spilling blood purely for the sadistic thrill of it, and they didn't stop at killing. Their sadism went hand in hand with deep-rooted bigotry. They used the animal's blood to draw swastikas on a wall and took photographs of themselves posing next to the grisly scenes, smiling.

There's a well-documented link between animal cruelty and homicide, but less research on the psychological effects on children who witness animal cruelty. In a 2016 study, researchers at Teaside University in the UK studied this phenomenon. They focused on Romania, where thousands of stray dogs roam the streets. Because of their large numbers, these dogs are considered vermin. and openly abused or even killed. The study found that teenagers in the area were desensitized to violence after witnessing animal cruelty,

particularly boys who witnessed animal abuse had less empathy and, as other researchers have shown, can lead to aggression later in life. Based on this logic, it's likely that torturing animals numbed Victor, Igor, and Alex to violence in general. It wasn't long before the friends inflicted this same malice onto humans, At 17, Igor reportedly beat up a local boy and swiped his bicycle.

Igor sold the stolen bike to Victor. Both of them were confronted by the police after the incident, but managed to avoid a criminal charge. Rumors have it that their influential parents might have had something to do with it. Soon, the three boys graduated from high school. His brush with the law may have had a big impact on Victor, as he seemed determined to hunker down and better himself. Maybe he wanted to make his parents proud. To that end, he enrolled part-time at a metallurgy institute, and when he wasn't studying, worked as a security guard. Igor, on the other hand, had no interest in self-improvement.

He was mostly unemployed and made some cash as an unlicensed cab driver. After a few months, the boys had an idea to start stealing from strangers, including Igor's passengers. It's not clear why they were drawn to the world of crime. Some reports suggest they were simply bored. Either way, Victor and Igor teamed up to rob unsuspecting customers and quickly realized they were pretty good at it. Alex agreed to join them, but not for long. After taking part in a double robbery, he balked and claimed to refuse to be involved anymore.

Later, Alex claimed that he didn't like the path his friends were heading down. They'd relish torturing animals, while he apparently gritted his teeth through the whole thing. Igor and Victor didn't seem bothered by Alex's. departure. They were ready to double down. They'd had such an easy time stealing from people. They wondered what else they could get away with. In November of 2006, the duo sat on a fence near a burger joint, just killing time. They were probably just bored when their predatory eyes fell on a drunk passer-by, stumbling in the night.

The teens exchanged a glance. There was nobody else around. Neither could resist. It was as if fate had handed this man to them. Moving quickly in the darkness, Igor crept up behind their target and hit him over the head with a rock. The poor guy fell to the ground right away. Victor searched his pockets, pulling out a little money and some photographs. Not exactly a gold mine, but better than nothing. As they rushed away from the man's unconscious form, Victor and Igor felt an immense sense of power. They'd grown up fearful, all too aware of the dangers around them.

They were afraid of heights until they forced themselves to hang from a 14. 14th floor balcony. And they'd both been afraid of bullies. So they turned themselves into the most monstrous tormentors of all. Now they were ready to take their campaign of terror to the next level. In a moment, Victor and Igor begin their murder spree. The most urgent mysteries in the world are missing persons cases. The stakes are too high not to pursue every plausible possibility. And some implausible ones too. I'm Sarah Turney, host of the new podcast Disappearances. In 2020, after spending years searching for the truth, I use social media to help bring justice to my sister Alyssa's nearly two decades long disappearance. Now every Thursday on Spotify, I'm exploring

the many reasons people disappear and the impact their absences can have on those left behind. From child abductions and mystifying murders, to those who took drastic measures to start over, each episode of disappearances journeys through a different high-profile missing persons case, ripped from the headlines and ripe for explanation, because no one just vanishes into thin air. The answers are out there waiting to be found. Follow the Spotify Original from Parcast Disappearances. Hear a new episode every Thursday, free and only on Spotify. Want to support your gut health?

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As 2006 drew to a close, 18-year-old's Victor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk felt invincible. Robbing unsuspecting people gave them a quick hit of adrenaline, not to mention easy money. But they weren't really after the cash. Both of their families were well off, so it's not like they were trying to make ends meet. They were sadists through and through.

There was easy prey all around them, and not just stray dogs. By the time summer rolled around, they were eager to take their violence to the next level. At this stage, we want to point out that detailed extensive accounts of Victor and Igor spree are hard to find. Timelines vary, and not all their movements were closely covered, so we're going to piece together everything as best we can, based on the available information. On the night of June 25th, Victor and Igor went out for what looked at least. looked like a casual evening walk, but they were on the hunt. Chillingly, Igor had a hammer concealed in the sleeve of his jacket. As they made their way through the city, they saw 33-year-old Yacaterina Ilchenko heading towards them.

She seemed like a perfect target. Yacaterina and her mom had invited her friend over for dinner. It had been a pleasant, peaceful evening, and Yadaterina felt relaxed. At the end of the night, she offered to walk her friend home. As Eccatarina headed home after dropping off her friend, she strode past the two boys. At that moment, Igor quickly spun around and pulled out the hammer. In a flash, he struck Eaterina on the side of the head, killing her right away. After she crumpled to the ground, Igor continued hitting her in the head and face,

leaving her almost unrecognizable. Giddy with excitement, he and Victor disappeared into the night. Afterwards, the duo were high on. adrenaline and power. They wanted to keep the feeling going. Less than an hour later, they struck again. A homeless man named Roman Tatarovich was asleep on a bench. Not far from where they'd accosted Yakaterina. Igor and Victor attacked him, smashing his head with the hammer or some other kind of blunt object. They beat Roman to death and casually walked away from the scene. Although no one witnessed Roman's murder, the bench wasn't in a discreet location.

In fact, it was near the local public prosecutor's office. Clearly, the duo weren't worried about getting caught. They probably slept peacefully that night. Meanwhile, Eccaterina's mother, Natalia, woke up early the next morning with a bad feeling in her gut. Her daughter hadn't come home last night and wasn't answering her phone. It wasn't like her. Natalia walked outside.

Within moments, she found her daughter's lifeless form laying at the side of their quiet street. traumatized and in shock, Natalia alerted the police. It's unclear what kind of investigation took place, but as far as we can tell, Igor and Victor didn't leave any evidence at the scene. Even if the police were asking questions, the boys probably reasoned they had nothing to worry about. They were the children of wealthy, well-connected families. Nobody would ever suspect them.

Still, they decided it would be safer to go further afield for their next act. About a week later, on July 1st, they traveled to the town of Novo Moskovs, about 16 miles north of Nepro Petrovsk. There, they ambushed and attacked Yevgenia Grishenka and Nikolai Sertchuk to death. Content with their latest conquest, the boys headed back home. A few days later, the pair geared up for a big Friday night. July 6th was a warm, early summer evening. The town was full of fellow young adults enjoying beers in the sunshine.

But Igor and Victor weren't interested in socializing with their peers. All they wanted to do was kill. With that goal in mind, they spent the evening skulking in the shadows outside a local nightclub, keeping an eye out for their next victim. Again, we can't be sure of exactly how things went down that night, but it might have begun when they settled on Yagor-Nechvaloda. He was a young man newly discharged from the army. The killers followed Yagor as he left the club in the early hours.

of the morning and trailed him all the way to his apartment building. Then they struck, beating him to death. As Igor and Victor were fleeing, they stopped in their tracks. A security guard walked towards them. She probably looked at the boy suspiciously. Elena Schramm was 28 years old and had been working the job long enough to recognize weird behavior. The duo froze. They weren't sure if Elena had seen anything, but they probably felt they were in trouble. Or they would be if they didn't act fast. As she drew closer, Igor pulled out the hammer and lunged at Elena, hitting her over the head. After she fell to the ground, he hit her again and again, making sure she was dead. Later that night, the pair bludgent another woman to death. Her name was Valentina

Hancha, and she was a mother of three. Even after killing three victims in one evening, Igor and Victor wanted more. Our best guess is that they were getting bored, and thought a change of scenery might help. The very next day, they drove 10 miles north of Nipropetrovsk to the quaint village of Piedha Rodney. They strolled through the small town looking for their next mark. Near the banks of the Samara River, they saw two teenage boys riding towards them on bicycles.

It was early in the morning and pretty dark. Igor and Victor quickly ambushed their victims, throwing them from their bikes. Then they bludgeoned them both over the head. One of the boys, Andre Sid Yuc, passed out. The other Vadim Lyakov was able to stay conscious. He fought against his attackers and managed to scramble back up and run away. Vadim ran away as fast as he could, heading into the nearby woods.

He knew the area like the back of his hand and easily found a place to hide. Igor and Victor tried to follow, but soon lost him. Once Vadim was sure his attackers were gone, he went back to Andre. He wrapped his friends, bleak. head in a t-shirt and promised to find help. Then Vadim went to the main road and frantically tried to flag down a passing car, his own head spinning from the force of the attack. By the time someone finally stopped, it was too late for Andre, and he unfortunately died.

Vadim was rushed to the hospital and managed to survive, but his ordeal was only just beginning. The police didn't buy Vadim's story. They doubted that he'd been ambushed by two strangers. Instead, they suspected that he had bludgeoned his friend to death and then tried to blame the crime on a pair of imaginary strangers. So they arrested him. According to Vadim, he was mistreated by authorities during his interrogation. He was threatened with jail time and his mother claims even physically abused by authorities.

But thankfully, the nightmare didn't last forever. At some point, it seems that Pete Haredne police were alerted to a string of similar murders in the nearby towns of Novo Moskovk and Nipropetrovsk. The MO was identical. Victims bludgeoned to death in public by an attacker who left no evidence behind. That's when the authorities realized they'd made a mistake. Vadim was a survivor, not a criminal. They let him go and started investigating the incident.

Vadim was able to provide a physical description of Igor and Victor, and thanks to his testimony, they established that the murders were likely the work of two young men. not just one. But even after this breakthrough, the cops made little progress. Vadim was left in limbo, terrified that his attackers would come back to finish what they started. Igor and Victor may have been counting on this. Given their family's involvement in politics and law, it's possible they knew how slowly an investigation would unfold.

On July 12th, four days after attacking Andre and Vadim, the boys set their sights on their next victim just outside of Nipro Petrovsk. As usual, they targeted the most vulnerable person they could find. 48-year-old Sergei Yatsenko had recently received a throat cancer diagnosis. He'd had surgery to remove the tumor and was temporarily unable to speak. But Sergei didn't like being idle, so he kept himself busy doing odd jobs in the neighborhood and riding his motorcycle. That afternoon, Sergei told his wife he was going out to fill up his motorcycle and said that he would visit his grandson on the way home. but he never got to see the young boy again.

Igor and Victor accosted Sergei in the woods, hitting him over the head with a hammer, and then they started filming everything on a cell phone. This was a dramatic change to the pair's M.O. In the past, they'd killed their victims in public, then fled the scene as quickly as possible, but here in a deserted forest clearing, they could take their time. Over the course of several horrific minutes,

Igor and Bigdor viciously murdered Sergei on camera. They struck him repeatedly in the face with a hammer, mutilated his eyes, and stabbed him with a screwdriver. Both were calm throughout the attack, talking and laughing with each other. After they'd had enough fun, they washed their hands and their trusty hammer

with a bottle of water. Still completely unruffled, they headed home. Meanwhile, back in town, Sergei's wife knew something was wrong. He'd never showed up at their son's house, and she was afraid he might have crashed his bike. She wanted to report his disappearance to the police as soon as possible, but Ukrainian law requires 72 hours before a person can officially be declared missing. She wasn't willing to wait around until then.

She posted missing posters with Sergei's image and a description of his motorcycle all around town. Three days after the murder, a local man recognized the bike. He'd seen it abandoned in a wooded area near the highway. Eager to help, he led Sergei's relatives to the location. Close to the bike, they found Sergei's mutilated body. Unbeknownst to the grieving family, Sergey's death was about to become online fodder. At some stage, Igor and Victor uploaded their video of the attack, calling it three guys, one hammer. In the darkest corners of the internet, death videos are disturbingly common.

Platforms like Facebook and Reddit have banned these recordings, while other shock and gore sites exist precisely to host such content. But murder videos, particularly those filmed by killers themselves, are typically rare. In a 2016 Florida Law Review paper, lawyer Musa K. Farmon Jr. specifically referenced three guys, one hammer in arguing for a federal ban on murder videos. Farmond Jr. noted that videos like it could actually perpetuate copycat crimes. He explained that fame-seeking murderers like Igor and Victor understand how to garner internet attention. It's clear that they enjoyed inflicting pain no matter who was watching, but the prospect of online notoriety may have driven them to act even more brutally towards Sergei.

Because recording and sharing murder footage is uncommon for serial killers, There's limited research on what motivates such behavior. According to criminology professor Scott A. Bonn, narcissistic predators are usually self-promoters who crave public recognition. There's no question that by sharing the video, Igor and Victor were courting attention. And they got it. The footage quickly gained traction, gathering millions of views from across the globe. Since this was pre-social media as we know it today,

At a time when internet anonymity was more common, no one seemed to trace the video back to Igor and Victor. So the two unidentified monsters were given a name. It was a moniker that surely thrilled them both. The Nipropetrovsk Maniacs. And they certainly lived up to the title. Up next, the Maniac Spree comes to an abrupt end. This episode is brought to you by Prime.

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containing products or any GLP1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pins or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. If you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepbound with a

sulfonel urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-9 or visit zepbound.lily.com. Now back to the story. In July of 2007, 19-year-old's Victor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk had just gone viral. Their snuff film, Three Guys, One Hammer, depicted their most recent murder. But by that stage, they'd killed at least 10 people in and around their hometown of Nipro-Betrovsk. Buoyed by this significant online response to their video, Igor and Victor wanted to keep their momentum going. Over the next two weeks, they killed around a dozen.

more victims in the area. These people were bludgeoned to death with blunt objects, and many were robbed. There was no clear pattern or logic to the killings. Their victims ranged from teenagers to pensioners. Some were wealthy, some were homeless. All that matter to the maniacs was that they were defenseless. They usually targeted people who were in some way vulnerable or incapacitated, and there was one other disturbing element.

Victor and Igor often brutalized their victims' faces and eyes. to the point that they were unrecognizable. There's little research available on why some killers specifically remove their victim's eyes, but there's a lot of precedent for the disturbing act. Russian serial killer Andre Chichotillo, who made headlines when Igor and Victor were children, gouged his victim's eyes. According to Chichotillo himself, he was following an old Russian superstition that said the face of a murderer is forever imprinted on the retinas of their victims.

But this belief was widespread already in the 19th and early 20th centuries so that police sometimes photographed victims' eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse of their killer. It's possible that Igor and Victor shared this superstition or were inspired by Chiquotillo. Then again, perhaps it was pure cruelty. In addition to their sadism, Victor and Igor were fueled by an extraordinary level of arrogance. They killed more than 20 victims in a single month, all of them in public.

and some of them in broad daylight. For whatever reason, they seemed to think they were above the law, but they pushed their luck too far. On July 14th, two days after their brutal murder of Sergei, the pair headed just outside of Nipro Petrovsk. Arriving in a quiet area, they waited for their next victim. Forty-five-year-old Natalia Mamarchuk was unlucky enough to be riding her scooter through the area that afternoon.

The boys ran towards Natalia and knocked her off her. vehicle. As she lay on the ground, one of the boys pulled out a hammer and smashed it into her head. It's not clear why Igor and Victor chose a hammer as their weapon. However, research shows that in the absence of a gun, male killers typically employ blood objects or strangulation. The hammer would have been easy to obtain, and relatively simple to explain away if anyone saw them carrying it. It also guaranteed the level of bloodshed they craved. Once Natalia was dead, they jumped onto a scooter and fled the scene. But unbeknownst to them, they weren't alone. There was a tent nearby hidden in the trees. Inside were two young siblings. They'd seen

the entire attack from their camp. The details on what happened next are scarce, but these two young eyewitnesses provided police with a description of both attackers. It matched the one given by Vadim Lyakov, the 14-year-old who was one of the maniac's surviving victims. Even though they were young, this additional account helped police with a case. It had already been brought to Kiev, Ukraine's capital city. Authorities then set up a large task force and reportedly assigned some 2,000 officers to the investigation. But this was all done in secret. No information about the murders was released and the police didn't openly seek leads or tips from the public.

The early 2000s were a time of transition for the Ukrainian media. Following Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution that fought against government corruption, Ukraine became one of the few countries part of the Soviet Union to support partly free freedom of press. In this partially free system, though, journalists remained under intense pressure from the government well into the 21st century. As a result, self-censorship was and still is common among the nation's media. This likely explains the lack of extensive reporting on the Nipropitrovsk-Maniac spree. Even without this kind of coverage, news of the attacks still spread like wildfire. With rumors of two maniacal killers on the loose, people became fearful.

They stayed off the streets at night, terrified of becoming the next victim. Although they wanted to keep things under wraps, authorities did provide some local businesses with sketches and descriptions of the suspects. They also gave nearby pawn shops a list of items that had been stolen from the maniac's victims. Investigators assumed that at some point the killers would get cocky enough to try and sell their stolen goods. They were right. On July 23rd, Igor and Victor went into a pawn shop with a stolen cell phone, which they tried to sell. When the staff asked Igor to prove the phone worked, he turned it on.

Police had been waiting for this moment. With the cell phone in range, they could track Igor's precise location. Officers rushed to the scene, and Victor and Igor were. arrested at the register. The jig was finally up. Their horrific spree was over. Soon after, their friend from school, Alex Hanja, was taken into custody. Apparently, he'd tried to flush some of the stolen phones down the toilet. Alex had wanted nothing to do with Igor and Victor's violent crimes, but they'd somehow convinced him to hide their stolen goods. So he was charged with two counts of armed robbery. Victor and Igor, meanwhile, were charged with

21 murders and other counts of armed robbery, attempted murder, illegal possession of weapons, and animal cruelty. All three defendants reportedly confessed to their crimes, at least initially. But by the time their trial began in June of 2008, Igor had changed his tune. He pleaded not guilty, while Victor and Alex pleaded guilty to most of the charges against them. Victor's defense team was led by his own father. Under his guidance, Victor R.E.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R. He pleaded recanted his confession. His defense then tried to claim diminished responsibility because of the power dynamic between him and Igor. They claimed that Victor was psychologically dependent on

Igor, who had acted as the ringleader. Victor testified that he'd been deeply afraid of Igor ever since the seventh grade. This is a common strategy among murderous couples or duos. One defendant will turn on the other in court. Often, this person will claim to have dependent personality disorder. According to the DSM-5, dependent personality disorder is characterized by a number of factors. These include submissive behavior that causes a person to have difficulty disagreeing with others in addition to a fear and discomfort with being alone. People with this disorder also struggle to make everyday decisions without an excessive amount

of advice and validation from others. We don't know enough about Igor and Victor's dynamic to determine if this explanation was plausible. But even if he was afraid of Igor, there's no excuse for his actions. After high school, Victor seemed to have a bright future ahead of him. He had a job and was enrolled at a metallurgy institute. He had plenty of options and chose the most monstrous one. And the evidence of his choices were well documented. Several months into their trial, the video footage of Sergei Yatsenko's murder, along with other graphic crime scene photos and murder videos they had shot, was shown in court.

Igor and Victor's defense teams objected to this. They argued that the images and videos had been digitally altered to implicate the defendants. The panel of judges wasn't swayed by this claim. In February of 2009, the court found Igor and Victor guilty of all charges. Igor was held responsible for 21 murders and Victor for 18. They were both sentenced to life in prison. Alex, who was found guilty on the robbery charges,

was sentenced to nine years. To this day, both men's parents maintain their innocence. It seems they can't fathom that their children were capable of such depraved behavior. Igor's father even said his son was tortured by police to extract a confession. Victor's father went further. He claimed his son had been framed. He said the real culprits were relatives of senior Ukrainian officials whose families were protecting them. This is painfully ironic given how much even.

Igor and Victor's own connections really did shield them from the law. As far as the Nipro-Petrovskomaniacs were concerned, the rules didn't apply to them. They were so wildly entitled that they truly thought they could get away with murder, and they were so desperate for attention that they uploaded the footage online for the world to see. When asked to own their crimes and accept the consequences of their actions, however, they balked. Igor and Victor perhaps hoped that violence would make them strong. but they preyed on vulnerable people. No matter how hard they tried to overcome their fears,

deep down, they were still weak. In the end, they were just cowardly boys clinging to their parents for protection, unable to face justice. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with another episode. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast

for free on Spotify. We'll see you next. next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Carrie Murphy, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro,

Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Amma Dibdin, with writing assistance by Natalie Pertsovsky and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Adriana Romero, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea. C. Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. I'm Sarah Turney, host of the new Spotify original from Parkcast, Disappearances. Every Thursday, join me for an exploration into history's most gripping missing persons cases. Following timelines,

analyzing clues, and piecing together as many answers as possible to find the truth. from prison breaks and child abductions to second chances and even murder. We'll journey through the many reasons people disappear. Follow my new podcast Disappearances free and only on Spotify. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history.

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